Meet Benefit

The Benefesto

We believe in WHISTLING WHILE YOU WORK IT…and faking it ‘til you make it.We believe in FAST & FABULOUS BEAUTY solutions…and that glamour is GRABBING LIFE BY THE GIGGLES and not letting go. We believe if at first you don’t succeed, APPLY MORE LIPSTICK…that SEXY gets you everywhere…and if you can’t be good, BE GORGEOUS.

We believe LAUGHTER IS THE BEST COSMETIC!

A legacy of laughter

Growing up Benefit

At Benefit, laughter is the best cosmetic...and who better to spread the giggles than the daughters and nieces of co-founders Jean & Jane Ford. With benetint in their veins and “beauty locker room” banter in their ears, Maggie & Annie Ford Danielson are natural pros at dishing about makeup. The new generation of sisters officially joined Benefit in 2008 and have since become our Global Beauty Authorities... a dynamic duo that travels the world to deliver laughter & beauty know-how to babes everywhere.

Beauty runs in the family

Wherever this fabulous foursome goes, beauty breakthroughs come fast and furious. From the creative packaging to the variety-show documentary Glamouriety, they keep the beauty world wondering...

“What will Benefit do next?!”

Our fearless founders

Meet the Ford twins...two Indiana farm gals turned successful models & makeup artists, who moved to San Francisco to take on a totally NEW approach to beauty. “In 1976 we flipped a coin. Heads we open a casserole cafe, tails we open a makeup shop!” Guided by their mantra “makeup doesn’t have to be serious to look good,” this dynamic duo believes laughter is the best cosmetic!

How it all began...

Let’s face it—Jean and Jane’s initial business plan was to make $33 per day to break even. Yet the ‘face place’, their tiny original makeup shop in San Francisco’s Mission District was bound for glory.

Have you heard the one about an exotic dancer walking into a bar and ordering nipple stain? Hence the first bottle of “Rose Tint” is sold to a San Franciscan dancer. Years later we call it benetint!

The House of Benefit is born. The face place is renamed “Benefit Cosmetics” and the first Benefit counter opens at a US department store, none other than Henri Bendel in NYC!

London calling! Benefit makes the leap overseas to open at Harrods in London. Jean & Jane are upstaged at the Benefit counter opening when her Royal Highness Princess Diana makes a surprise appearance.